Country wins two gold, three silver to take overall medal tally in shooting to 18, their highest-ever at Games
Palak Gulia was a bookworm until shooting happened to her. Brilliant in academics, she would spend hours reading textbooks and novels, sparing bare minimum time to socialise with family and friends.
Palak's worried parents would often complain about her reclusive life, prodding their child to find some time out of her studies. It took a lot of effort and convincing from her businessman father to enrol the 17-year-old in a shooting academy at the St. Xaviers school in Gurugram, where she was studying.
It was late 2019 and, just when Palak started developing a liking for the sport, Covid-19 happened. The thought of pursuing her career in shooting took a backseat. When normalcy resumed, the two-time junior ISSF World Cup gold medallist (at Suhl 2022 in the individual and mixed team event) returned to the range and resumed training with an aim to break into the national squad.
Little did she know that two years down the line, she would be standing atop the podium with a gold medal around her neck in the women's 10m air pistol in her debut Asian Games. That too, with a record continental meet score of 242.1.
Esha Singh settled for silver in the final with 239.7 points, as the terrific duo ensured India's first one-two finish in Hangzhou. In the process, Esha also scripted history as she became the first Indian female shooter to win four medals in a single edition of the Games - gold in 25m sports pistol team and three silver in 25m sports pistol individual, 10m air pistol individual and 10m air pistol team.
Pakistan's Kishmala Talat secured her country's maiden medal - a bronze - in shooting at the Asiad with a score of 218.2. She was eliminated after 22 shots.
Earlier, Palak and Esha combined with Divya TS to win silver in the women's 10m air pistol team event with a combined score of 1731. China (1736) won the gold and Chinese Taipei (1723) settled for bronze.
Later, the men's 50m rifle 3 positions team comprising Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Akhil Sheoran and Swapnil Kusale won gold, before Aishwary grabbed the individual silver in the 50m rifle 3P.
With Friday's impressive haul of five medals, India took its overall tally in the sport to 18 - the highest ever in shooting at any Asian Games. Six gold, seven silver and five bronze are already in the kitty with trap events and women's skeet yet to come in the coming two days of competition.
India's previous best was 14 medals, including three gold, at Doha 2006. At Jakarta 2018, India secured nine medals which included two gold.
In the 10m air pistol final, Palak started with a 9.1 on her first shot but that was the only blip in an otherwise brilliant display of high 10s shooting, during which the Haryana girl never lost sight of her focus. She managed 577 in the qualifying round to finish seventh.
Esha, who finished fifth in the qualification with a total of 579, led the final after 10 shots before Palak took over, with seven successive 10+ shots, including a 10.7, to beat the competition handsomely for gold. "After the first shot, I was a little nervous because that's normal human behaviour. But for an athlete, your quality is how you come back from your bad shots or how well you can come back," said Palak later, "I knew it was only one shot… I still had 23 more shots to go. I was only focusing on the process, like no matter what happened. I still had so much to do.
"I feel over the moon right now. It feels so good to make the country proud and everybody around me proud. This year was a tough one for me. When I went for the qualification rounds, I only had one thing in mind, 'That no matter what happens, do not give up'. Apparently, my qualifications were just good enough. But once you're in the finals, you have already made it there, you cannot give up. I told myself 'Now that I'm here, I have to win'. I am super excited to win gold in my debut Games," she added.
Esha said she had a bit of nerves and couldn't trigger well initially. "It was tough that time. But I instantly realised and made amends. I started paying more attention towards my triggering and it helped." "It was good, the initial start was very nice. I was able to maintain my focus for as long as possible. There were certain times where it was not working out, but I am glad that at the end, it did. I would give the performance a nine out of 10," she said.
